Next-generation mobile devices will be able to access a variety of network technologies including, for example, worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) networks, wireless local area network (WLAN) networks, long term evolution (LTE) mobile telephony networks, personal area networks (PANs), wireless universal serial bus (USB) networks or BLUETOOTH (BT) networks, etc. The various technologies have different transmission timing requirements in order to provide a needed quality of service (QoS). QoS is the ability to provide different priority to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow, e.g., guarantee a required bit rate, delay, jitter, packet dropping probability, bit error rate, etc. QoS guarantees are important, for example, if the network capacity is insufficient or limited. QoS guarantees are also important for real-time streaming multimedia applications such as voice over IP, online games and IP-TV, since these delay sensitive applications often require a fixed bit rate.
The IEEE802.11 specification provides a QoS control protocol that enables a service differentiation to be provided for packets. For example, voice and e-mail traffic require different quality of service levels to provide acceptable service quality. In particular, voice packets need to be delivered within strict delay bounds whereas e-mail packets are more delay tolerant.
While increased access to these technologies will benefit users and operators alike, interference among different technologies, particularly onboard a single device, introduces difficulties during concurrent operation of these technologies. For example, and as illustrated in FIG. 1, WLAN (in 2.4-2.5 GHz) and WiMAX (2.3-2.4 GHz and 2.5-2.7 GHz) technologies operate at relatively close frequency bands with respect to each other—so close, in fact, that the out-of-band emission by either technology may saturate the receiver of the other technology resulting in potential blocking. Therefore, interference between two technologies operating in the same device creates challenges on the coexistence of the corresponding two wireless interfaces of that device.
As a result, various solutions are needed to enable the competition for resources among the technologies onboard a single device to be less apparent and less inconvenient to users.